[EL] obscure question

[Adam Bonin]

Happened to me in a case this cycle, and this is hornbook PA law. Candidate
had someone fill in the year for signers who omitted it (and claimed it was
too cold outside a supermarket in Erie in February to ask signers to stay);
they were all tossed. See also In re Fitzpatrick, 822 A.2d 859, 860-61 (Pa.
Commw. Ct., 2003):

 

The trial court struck the following five signatures because of a missing
date: page 1, line 15; page 4, line 2; page 14, lines 17 and 20; and page
21, line 39. Fitzpatrick argues that the defect is immaterial because the
date of signing is apparent from the other dates appearing on these pages.
We disagree.

        

Section 908 of the Election Code, Act of June 3, 1937, P.L. 1333, as
amended, 25 P.S. § 2868, states that each signer of a nomination petition
shall add the date of signing. Our supreme court has held that the failure
to add the date of signing invalidates the signature. In re Nomination
Petition of Silcox, 543 Pa. 647, 674 A.2d 224 (1996). Therefore, as a matter
of law, the defect is not immaterial.

 

--Adam Bonin

 

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
[mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Richard
Winger
Sent: Monday, July 30, 2012 10:06 PM
To: law-election at uci.edu
Subject: [EL] obscure question

 


Today the Libertarian Party submitted 42,000 signatures to be on the ballot
in Pennsylvania.  The Elections office immediately examined all the
signatures and lined out all the signatures in which the signer had not put
"2012" in the date column.  In other words, one-third of the signers
(14,000) just put the month and day, but not the year.

However, the state-printed form says at the bottom "Revised Jan. 2012", and
Pennsylvania law did not permit the petition to circulate until February
2012.

Does anyone happen to be aware of any precedents on whether signatures on
petitions are invalid, just because the form asks for the date and the
signer puts only the month and day but not the year?

Pennsylvania requires 20,601 valid signatures this year.

Richard Winger
415-922-9779
PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147

 

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